Varian had selected the 4th largest satellite galaxy as the target this time. The number two must be alert after the attack and it wouldn't be easy to sneak in.
'Attacking upfront is impossible. There are too many fortifications.'
So, he created a new disguise and decided to sneak in as a soldier stationed in that galaxy's army, just returning from a patrol.
The capture of the man with suitable identity was done within a few minutes. Study of his memories, imitation of his mannerisms happened in seconds. But the usage of slivers to capture his aura to decieve the security systems took a full hour.
"Haa~"
Varian threw the unconscious soldier into a space crack which would eventually lead to Hortus.
The spaceship he ambushed had a total of four soldiers and except for the captured, the remaining three were in an illusion where nothing alarming happened so far.
In the dark space that streched on endlessly, there was a small glowing light in the far distance. It was a small spiral with the color of blue at its center.
'Antila.'
The power of life and death emerged, morphing his body right from superficial appearance to the depth of his DNA.
"Fuu~"
Varian entered the spaceship and was about to wake up the remaining soldiers. From their perspective, nothing would've changed.
It's the perfect plan.
Booom!
Until a red beam descended out of nowhere and blasted the spaceship into pieces.
"How dare you attack the soldiers of the Empire?! Your trivival victory won't last longer than a virgin's first time!" Varian maintained his identity and cursed.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
Following the loud claps, a white light appeared in the darkness and morphed into a humanoid.
"If you had only been born as an actor, you could've survived." Immortal looked at him with a mocking gaze.
A thin red and green aura began to spread from him. The powers of life, death and even soul began to expand, forming three concentric spheres enveloping a huge region of space with them at the center.
Varian's disguise, created by the meticulous application of his life and soul power, was forcibly removed, revealing the face of the handsome young man.
Immortal pursed his lips.
The power difference was clear. His mastery of life and soul power was far higher than Varian's.
"Sliver holder, Mate of my vessel." Immortal's eyes turned pitch black without any pupils.
A red dot appeared in those dead eyes with the combined power of life, death and soul.
The three concentric spheres enveloping them vibrated, resonating with those glowing red dots.
Boom!
The red dot flashed and the fields collapsed onto Varian, drowning him in a catastrophic flood of vitality, death and soul.
His vitality got severely restricted, preventing him from any movements and limiting his attempts at self-defense.
Death essence engulfed him and his flesh began to wither, quickly turning into a dry branch.
The attack on soul was not directly harmful, but it threw him into an illusion of the timeless world, pushing Varian back into the memories where he remained the most helpless.
Immortal exhaled as a sense of fatigue washed over him. Even though he acted arrogant, he didn't take Varian lightly.
With the combination of those three attacks, even a pseudo divine would be helple—
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
It's true that Varian couldn't defeat Immortal on the fronts of Life, Death and Soul paths.
Born from the slivers themselves, Immortal's affinity with the paths of Sage avenue was unimaginably high. And as a consequence, the strength he could exert in these three paths was greater than anyone in the same rank, even Keman Aurik and Yami.
With the power of three paths and each path being stronger than everyone else, Immortal had always been invincible in his rank.
So, the question of 'losing' to a same ranker was laughable and against common sense.
But that common sense was challenged now.
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
The powers of order and chaos rose.
With the help of Order, the mass of vitality drained from him was captured by the back and injected back into Varian, while his powers of life and death assisted them while keeping up the defense.
The power of Chaos shook the illusion, destabilizing it severely and letting him break out of the false world.
Space twisted, letting him out from the clutch of the tri-field and allowing him a moment of respite.
Time rippled, skipping a few moment of his travel, allowing him to get behind Immortal without the man tracking his movements.
Despite the steps taken, Immortal realized his presence a lot faster than any pseudo divine might have and conjured a wheel of life and death in his hand.
A shockwave powered by soul originated from him and swept the surroundings, intending to stun Varian for a moment so that the wheel of life and death could devour him.
It was a great plan.
Unfortunately, with a very sturdy body that's also prepared for soul attacks, the shockwave failed to achieve its objective.
Varian was able to land the strike first, flooding Immortal with a tremendous amount of Order and Chaos rules.
"Arghh! You! What are you…"
White and black lines spread on Immortal's body before he exploded into pieces.
The brimming vitality and death energy in his remains were all affected by the power of Order and Chaos.
The amount of power Varian poured into the attack was enough to kill more than two pseudo divine ranker.
"Haaa! Huff! Haah!"
Even with all the strength he held, it was a great exertion. Varian groaned in frustration as even moving his fingers felt like an uphill task.
The mission of infiltration had obviously failed.
With the aura fluctuations coming from this region, only fools would allow the patrol teams of this place in.
Keeck! Kwick! Kiwck!
The sound of flesh rubbing against bones rang all of a sudden and Varian raised his hand to attack.
A brilliant red and green light flashed with a touch of white.
Immortal was back in one piece.
"This will only end with your death."
He disappeared with those words.